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In The Trenches

Sins of a Solar Spymaster #12 - Proxy Wars: The Fall of ISS

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Posted May 19th, 2009 by The Mittani

Nothing is ever a "small matter" in EVE 0.0 space.
It wasn't supposed to end this way. Count Ta'Sessine and Serenity Steele had envisioned a new form of business in EVE, a venture capital group devoted to populating the deserted tracts of 0.0 with outposts, the ferociously expensive player-created stations which, in late 2005, no single alliance had the capital or werewithhal to build. Created as a neutral entity that would be above politics, the Interstellar Starbase Syndicate (ISS) was the darling of New Eden's investor class. Each new outpost they created was a separate corporate entity providing dividends to its investors, and there seemed to be a bottomless desire for ISS shares. At its height, many in the gaming media wrote about the ISS's IPO stock offering as an example of emergent gameplay. But then, everything with wrong. By December of 2006, ISS had become the focus of a proxy war - a brushfire conflict where massive powerblocs tested one another. Everything they had worked for was ruined, and a GIA agent was there to help usher them to their doom.

EVE 01

There are some regions that just aren't worth fighting for, and the core of ISS lived in one of them - Catch. Centrally located in the galaxy and adjacent to equally undesireable (and roleplayer-infested) Providence, the territory held by ISS amounted to little more than a galactic parking lot, with no valuable mining or ratting to attract hostile attention. This was ideal for a neutral business entity, as it allowed the ISS to rely upon a small volunteer defense force to patrol their space, the ISS Navy. ISS's only neighbor was a small alliance whose only ambition was to fly around while extremely drunk and bash into things, the Interstellar Alcohol Conglomerate (IAC). Every now and then IAC would shoot ISS, but it was hardly a threat; the very idea of IAC being a strategic threat was patently ridiculous, given how inebriated they were at any given moment.

After their first few successful outpost ventures, the injection of fame and riches led the ISS leadership to expand their ambitions. No longer would they merely hold worthless space, they would engage in direct partnerships with existing powerblocs, setting up outposts on their behalf in valuable regions. The first of these would be in Tenerifis, for Lotka Volterra (LV). This would not compromise ISS's neutrality, Count Ta'Sessine insisted, but while investors could be fooled, the enemies of Lotka Volterra - the RedSwarm Federation (Red Alliance, Goonswarm, and Tau Ceti Federation) - began openly denouncing ISS for becoming a LV pet.

EVE 02

The neutrality policy had been at the core of ISS's defense for years. By holding themselves as unaligned in 0.0 politics, investors could be assured that ISS's outposts - technically, shareholder property - would not be seized by other alliances. This policy was publicly and vigorously enforced against any ISS member who spoke out too openly about 0.0 politics. In one such incident in July 2006, a ISS Navy director named Jacob Majestic was formally censured and stripped of his roles and duties because he openly disagreed with the Band of Brothers attack on Goonswarm.

Meanwhile, IAC had been expanding in a constellation within five jumps of ISS. The third IAC outpost, in F4R, was constructed right next door to two ISS properties, KDF and ZXIC. Proximity gave rise to escalating tensions; rather than seeing IAC as adorable drunken neighbors who you can have a friendly scrap with, ISS began to view IAC as a strategic threat. And unlike in the early days of their existence as a mercantile alliance, ISS was now absolutely loaded with isk. Enough was enough; the next time IAC reset standings with ISS, Count TaSessine hired the best mercenaries in New Eden and announced that he would protect his investors assets by annexing everything IAC owned, driving them from 0.0 forever.  

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